the swing of things

We're back at it here in the high desert of New Mexico! Today marked the beginning of week three of teaching and I couldn't be happier (with some things, there are still those that are in need of a good overhaul, but I'll get to that later)!

In the past two years of my teaching, one area that I really struggled with was classroom management. While I happily made my way through each day, I knew that things were not their best, but I was never 100% sure what to do, or how to articulate what was going on to get help from outsiders. Well, this year I am feeling a million times better about what is going on in my classroom procedurally.

This year my school began implementing a behavior management strategy called 1-2-3 Magic. I must say, it is kind of magical. While I am still refining some of the ins and outs of the method, I am no longer putting energy into disciplining my students and explaining to them what was going on. Let's face it, they're five and they don't care. Now I can simply look at them and say 1 (or 2, or 3) and typically they'll mutter an "okay" and stop. Magic I tell you! This past Friday I didn't need to count for anyone! At the end of the day I am not musing over what went wrong, about whether or not my students hate me, or what I could have done differently (with regards to behavior). They're misbehaving, I say "one" and they typically stop.

In addition to our management magic I have some stellar routines going on. Last year I tried using chimes in my classroom as an attention getter, but I was horrible at being consistent with them. This year I ring the chimes, everyone stops what they are doing, they put their hands in their laps, and they look at me. I start counting down from 3 and by 0 they are silent and looking at me. I say rule check and they are silent and looking at me. When we use white boards if we are moving on to something else that does not require the boards they automatically sit on them and burry their markers in their laps (today I didn't even get to tell them what to do, I turned on the projector and they started cleaning their boards and sat on them right away!). So, management is coming along quite nicely. It only took me two years of bumbling around to figure this one out (at least for the time being).

Another area of struggle for me in the past has been teaching math. While there are numerous math teachers in my family, I have always struggled with finding ways to make math exciting when all we are doing is writing numbers, counting, naming shapes, etc. I think that this is coming along pretty well this year as well. I am much more cognizant of getting manipulatives into the hands of my kinders and using rhymes and story telling to keep them engaged in lessons. I think our grasp of routines has also helped with our math lessons. They know when manipulatives are tools and not toys, and they have learned that if they are playing they need to draw circles instead of using bears, cubes, or blocks. I still have some learning to do in this area, but I think we're coming along nicely!

The one area that got me today was center time. I had planned out my centers, but I had visions of my students from last year when I was doing this. I must elaborate, I had visions of my students from the END of the year last year when I was planning. Kinders at week three of school have very different abilities when compared to kinders at week 36 of school. Lesson learned, I will need to play around and finagle some, but we'll get there eventually.

All in all, I am very happy with where we are as a class this year. I cannot wait to see my kinders grow, learn, and excel this year. It is always so exciting to watch them as they grasp new skills and have aha moments. 

In addition to my new group of kinders, I have a new group of grade level teachers. So far they have made teaching so much more enjoyable! We work together very well and get along perhaps a little too well (it takes forever to lesson plan, but we have a great time doing it!)! They truly love their students and they are invested in their classrooms. We talk every day and share ideas. We are helping one another grow and become better teachers every day.

I have heard from friends that year three of teaching is the best, and at week three, I must say that I agree.

plans

Sometimes plans don't go as you would like. Some things take longer than you would expect. Sometimes there are delayed starts due to weather. Sometimes students just aren't getting the point. The whole day, as a teacher, is about adjusting your plans to meet the students' needs. And still, we make plans, over and over again, hoping that one day everything will click and we'll be able to teach everything that we actually need to.

Next week I am administering tests to determine the levels of English Language Learners in the kindergarten grade level. Thanks to the awesome budgeting of my district, a sub is not funded for the time that I am out testing, which leaves my assistant on her own for a couple of days. Granted, she has her teaching degree, but our regular schedule involves us both teaching at different points during the day through centers and small group activities. With this in mind, I have had to completely revamp several of my days next week to account for her being on her own.

In this planning, I get a little more freedom than usual. I have been able to create worksheets and have fun with my plans. The unfortunate thing about sub planning is that you don't actually get to do all of the fun things that you are leaving behind for someone else. So, as frustrating as creating sub plans can be, I relish the opportunity to be a little more creative, even if I am not the one to benefit from all of the work that goes into it.

On top of my being out for testing next week, I have other fun things to accommodate for in my planning. On Thursday the Albuquerque Zoo is coming in to do a presentation of "Zoo to You." Through this our students will be able to meet some of the cool animals at the zoo. We also have that beloved day, Valentine's Day, on Friday. Yay for hyped up kiddos. At least it falls on a Friday this year so I don't need to deal with the sugar coma following their sweet indulgences on the holiday.

Here's a peek at one of my fun creations for next week - sight word graphing!

planning

Today when my grade level came together for a planning session a wonderful thing happened. We planned out the remainder of the school year. I am in heaven. Our language arts pacing was already determined by the district, but math has kind of been moving along on a week-to-week basis. One of the other teachers was getting worried about whether or not we would be able to cover all of our required material in the remaining months of school, so we sat down and figured it out. I love, love, love the fact that I can now plan as far in advance as I can find the time to. I can sort and file worksheets accordingly. I can, in essence, be a planning nerd. There, I said it. I'm a planning nerd. And I'm okay with that!

And now I'm off to an evening of grad school. (This is partially why I am a planning nerd, so many things to do, so little time.)

hustle and bustle

Tomorrow I am being blessed with the opportunity to sit through jury duty selection. As a result I was able to spend today finding ways to squeeze in weekly assessments so that they are not left to chance tomorrow under the supervision of as substitute. My class was pretty successful in their completion of these assessments, though I felt like I was hanging on by a thread forcing extra activities into an already jam-packed schedule.

After school didn't get much better. I stayed late yesterday making sure plans for next week were squared away just in case. I was hopeful for a cancellation of the jury selection though and didn't make sub plans. Therefore, I busied myself putting together plans that wouldn't kill the sub and that would keep the kinders engaged. Hopefully I was successful in this plan and everyone comes back happy on Monday. We shall see.

everything but the kitchen sink and then some

What a busy couple of days! On Friday we were go, go, go in Room 1 Kindergarten. We had our weekly review sessions followed by our end of week assessments in reading and in math. I was observed by my principal for our lovely new state evaluation system for teachers. We had a rushed special at the computer lab and then wrapped up the day with a parade to celebrate the close of Red Ribbon Week (a week against bullying and drugs).

After school was over I squeezed in the finishing touches on prep work for the coming week as well as a little bit of grad school work, and then I was thrown back in the trenches. My school had our annual Fall Festival Friday night and I was on the face painting crew. With my iPad on hand I was able to look up whatever designs the kiddos wanted and then tried to carry them out with the horrible face paints that the school provided. Grease paints may wash off easily, but it's really hard to get any color to show up when they are dollar store grease paints. Oh well, everyone walked away happy with their transformer, vampire, zombie, and kitty cat faces. In the end it was a fantastic evening - even if I didn't get to leave my table until 15 minutes after Fall Fest ended. I was able to whisper a quick hello to the mister when he stopped by, but didn't have a break to say much more as I had a little one that just kept asking me to paint different colors on her face. She had no clue what was going on, other than the fact that people were getting their faces painted and she wanted in on the action.

Yesterday the mister and I took some time to soak up the sun and get a good hike in before our trails start to be covered by ice. He took me on some new trails and then we wrapped up the miles by coming back on an old standard. We saw tons of animal tracks and while we were hopeful to see some mountain lion tracks (there is a warning sign up that mountain lions have been seen on the trails this year), all that we got to see were those of giant rez dogs that were chasing after deer and some jack rabbit prints. The afternoon consisted of some grad school work before going out to try a new (and delicious) restaurant. When we got home we watched some Dr. Who (a new favorite for me) and I finished up a birthday present for one of my adorable nieces.

Today I've been back at the grind. I started out by getting a good workout in, but then had to go about my usual cleaning routine. After that, it was all grad school. However, I won't complain because I am now done with one of the three courses that I was taking this semester. With any luck I'll be done with the other two before Thanksgiving!

Hope you had a restful weekend and are ready for the week to come!

reset

Happy fall break! I just returned from about seven hours in my classroom. Go me!

Last night I had a great discussion with a couple of my classmates about classroom resets. This idea sparked something in me. During the last couple of weeks I have noticed that my students are starting to get snarky with one another and there have been a few tearful outbursts due to comments and actions made my some of the students. When one of my classmates brought up the idea of a reset, I was hooked. What a great time - we're on a break, the first quarter just ended, and we have a new friend in our class. All of these elements seemed to come together in my mind and my reset plan evolved. 

Today, I had intended to go into my classroom to get my planning for next week wrapped up and to close out the first quarter. While I did do those things,  I also made anchor charts for listening skills and appropriate group work behaviors. I made six-inch voice ribbons to help us keep our conversations at a reasonable level when in small groups. I built rule-reset time into my lesson plans for next week. I restocked our table supply boxes and finally managed to find inexpensive dry erase markers to restock that supply (and subsequently glued pom poms on the ends to serve as individual erasers while students are working on write and wipe pockets). Our classroom is reset. 

We will start over on Monday and rebuild our positive environment. We'll refocus our attention on all of the great learning that we have been doing and stop worrying about other students' behaviors. We will worry about ourselves only. I am going to keep affirming these statements with the belief that my vision will come to fruition over the next week and that our class will reset and continue to make incredible progress.

Of course, after getting my reset planned, I had to plan all of the academic stuff. I also organized and reset student data folders for the second quarter. Busy as a bee, but it paid off. Now my plans are in order, the materials needed for next week are all laid out. My first quarter is wrapped up so I do not need to worry about grade verification because everything is entered and I just need to sign off on final grades next week when our clerk is in the office. 

Now I can enjoy fall break to the fullest.

Oh - and it snowed today! Not a lot, but I love seeing the white stuff falling from the sky.

dead battery

It happens to all of us. The battery dies on something. In recent years I have heard complaints of batteries dying on Kindles before someone is able to finish a book, or the battery on their phone dies before they are able to take a quick photo of something that is priceless. Today, the battery that died was mine. Well, my computer's battery died as well, but that wasn't until after my personal one did.

It take a lot of energy to teach. Last year, I think that I lived in a little bubble of confusion that kept on bouncing me along, somewhat effortlessly. It's easy to have energy when you do not fully realize the implications of your position, how to meet the goals and objectives of your position, and when you don't really understand what you are doing wrong or how you can fix it (or at least try to fix it). 

This year I am tired. I had the summer to really evaluate what it means to be a kindergarten teacher. I have a better understanding of my goals, and as a result I am pushing my students further. To do this, I am also pushing myself further. I spend time trying to develop dynamic lesson plans that fit within the district mandated curriculum. I put myself out there to try and keep my kinders engaged in a less than exciting lesson that just needs to be taught. I spend endless hours looking for new and exciting resources. I write grants. I develop hands on materials (manipulatives). I teach.

Today, I was super excited to see my kinders after being away from them yesterday. We had a fantastic morning that was focused on oral language development (a fancy way of saying that we talked a lot). We did center work. And more center work. And we celebrated National Book-It Day. Then we did more centers in math class. Then I had a meeting. Then we did our exciting smartie pants end of day wrap up (I swear, I'll actually write about this one of these days). Then my kinders left. And with them, my energy vanished. My battery died on the spot when the last student climbed into his father's truck.

Still, I went back to my classroom and had a meeting with my mentor. As a second year teacher I am a part of a mentoring program to help me to become a more effective teacher. This means more work. And of course, on top of that I have grad school work. And lesson planning. Do you get the point? I am exhausted. 

This afternoon though, my computer's battery died. This year I have taken to leaving my charger at home. Today, I found good reason to do this. When my battery died, I had to leave (well, not really, but it seemed like a good excuse).

The good news is that we have fall break next week. Four whole days of no teaching (just planning, grad school, yada, yada, yada). I am ecstatic. 

busy busy blah

Saturday and Sunday flew by once again. Saturday morning the mister and I walked downtown to peruse the farmer's market and to grab a few goodies from the co-op. Then it was home with our noses tucked into grad school work. We did manage to go out with friends on Saturday evening through, which is always a pleasant escape from the world of work and more work.

Yesterday was a fantastic day. The mister and I both ran in a local half marathon. It was a little chilly, but we had a beautiful day out on the trails. We both ran faster than we did last year (an easy feat for me since I did not run last year). Of course, once our time on the trails were done we rushed home to more work - chores, planning for the week, and grad school work.

Today was my blah. I was in training all day, which I will say was fantastic, but the energy that I have while teaching was missing. I don't know if that was the result of running yesterday, but I suspect that it was the result of sitting all day and listening to someone talk. The presenter was really engaging, but I am used to getting up and moving around nearly every fifteen minutes - I have grown accustomed to the attention span of a five year old.

Now it's off to more grad school. Tonight is a reading class, and thankfully it should not entail more sitting. We have a gallery walk of how our school and/or classrooms promote reading. Here's a little look at what reading looks like in my classroom and school.

push

Curriculum. It's kind of a bummer. Or at least when you are told to use certain materials to meet the curriculum and standards.

This afternoon I met with my fellow kinder teachers and we talked math. We started the year following the new materials that the district purchased, and now that we are almost a quarter of the way through the year things are starting to crumble. We were chasing the curriculum as opposed to nurturing our students.

In the first eight weeks of school we have pushed through numbers zero to ten. We have worked on group and number comparisons. We have worked on the concept of one more. We have worked on ordinal numbers. But what, we were wondering, do our students actually know? When we boil it down, not much. We keep on pushing and pushing, instead of building. After we wrap up chapter two next week, we're getting down and dirty. We will still use the resources that the district purchased, but we will shuffle through the chapters to find what fits the students needs. We will build on basic skills so that our kinders have a solid foundation when they move on to first grade.

The starting point: number sense. We are going to dig deep and make sure that our students understand the story of each number. We want them to know that three plus two equals five and that two plus three equals five. We want them to cut and paste and make art to demonstrate these skills. We want math to become more hands on, to be paced to fit their five and six year old minds, and we want them to feel successful.

Granted, I have a super bright bunch this year so things have been going pretty well. But when we saw that the next chapter is counting and recognizing numbers to one hundred, a red flag went up. Our students need a stronger base before we push to that level. We will compose and decompose numbers and then move on to adding and subtracting them. This may seem like a bigger push than counting to one hundred, but these are skills that are integrated and build upon one another. Our students will know (hopefully) why they are doing different things and build a conceptual understanding of numbers. We may be thinking big, but we have big dreams for our little learners.

go team

As a second year teacher, I am a protege to an experienced teacher, my mentor. We meet every Tuesday afternoon to discuss the happenings in kindergarten, how things are going on my end, school goals, and any questions, concerns, or difficulties that I am having. This is a time for me to absorb all of the knowledge that she has to share, since she is retiring at the end of the school year.

Today, we began our discussion talking about assessments. We spent yesterday and today doing language arts and math assessments that will produce the data that should drive our next quarter of instruction. As we were discussing this, I mentioned that last week I took the time to copy the weekly assessments that we will need to do in language arts, the benchmark assessments for language arts and math, and a couple of other little things that we will use on a regular basis. The next step was how to get copies for our whole grade level. And my question was answered with action.

My mentor took me down to the main office and she taught me how to fill out work orders for our district print shop. Our fellow kindergarten teacher also happened to be in the office, and so we sat down and filled out all of the work orders - about 14 in all. Yay for teamwork! If I had been trying to do that on my own it would have taken a good 30 to 45 minutes. With the three of us we were done in 15! Go team!

As an added bonus, this helps us to be better organized for the rest of the school year - and if you know me, I love organization!

mobile learning

Today I submitted a grant to promote mobile learning in my classroom. This is not a very costly grant, but one that will make a world of difference in my opinion. I simply asked a local foundation to fund clipboards for my students.

Why clipboards? Well, quite simply, I want my students to be able to produce work at or in locations other than their work table. I want them to be able to walk around the classroom and find words that they would like to use in their writing. I want them to be able to be a part of math drama and use what they learned, in the moment, to solve problems that are on their worksheets. I believe that I can revolutionize the work that my students produce, simply by promoting movement while learning. It may sound silly, but I'm pretty excited about the possibilities if I am funded.

Just think about your school experience. When were you most excited about learning? Was it when you were sitting at your desk, staring into a book? Or was it when you were actually applying what you were learning, in a meaningful way? I think we all like to be up and moving, and I think that statement applies to kindergarten students even more. No one likes to be tied to one place, especially when there are more exciting alternatives to achieving the same means. My method of helping my kinders do that is clipboards.

Fingers crossed!

sometimes it is okay

Collaboration. I know that I have ranted about it in the past. But, sometimes it is okay.

On Wednesdays, during my planning period, I have a grade level meeting during which my two fellow kindergarten teachers and I plan for the coming week. We review what has worked well for us in the previous week and changes that we might like to make to have our classes run a little more smoothly and effectively. I have really grown to enjoy this time with my fellow teachers, who are, unfortunately, both planning on retiring at the end of the school year. They have taught me a lot in the past year, and these collaboration sessions have allowed me to grow as a teacher and become more effective in my practice.

Last year, I was soaking up all of the knowledge that they could throw my way. This year, the tables have turned a little. Our school has become more technologically advanced, providing each classroom with C.O.W.s (Computers On Wheels). We all have laptops, document cameras, and projectors. This allows us to access the digital resources that were developed to match our mathematics and language arts curricula. Therefore, this year I provide technical advice, and they continue to give me an abundance of ideas to help me teach a concept in a new way that may make more sense to struggling learners. This year, we collaborate, we all have different strengths to share to help one another out.

As I said, sometimes, it's okay! 

money money money

As a general rule, teachers do not make a lot of money. I think it is also a general rule that teachers end up spending a lot on their classrooms and their students to make learning more engaging and enjoyable. The equation doesn't really balance out, but that's the way it goes. At least in my home.

Today, that equation was turned around a little tiny bit. I received an email from my principal saying, "Surprise, classroom teachers have XXX amount of money to spend on their classrooms!" These surprise emails make me giddy. It's kind of like being a kid in a candy store. As a result, I spent my planning period and a fair amount of time after school playing around online, trying to figure out what I wanted to bring into my classroom. Then I spent more time substituting one item for another until I came up with what I felt was the best way I could use this surprise gift.

You may be wondering, "why on earth did she spend so much time figuring this out today?" It's a good question. The reasoning behind the time that I spent sorting out which items I would like to bring into my classroom today is that these "gifts" often expire pretty quickly. Administration is told that their schools have so much money to spend within a certain period of time, otherwise those funds disappear. I do not want to be one of the teachers that misses out on the opportunity, and I also don't want to just fill my room with junk. I spent time thinking about what would help to make my instruction more meaningful, and then I played around with those ideas. What I came up with is as follows:

• Dry erase markers (I use these daily, they are expensive, and they help me save trees)
• Math manipulatives and corresponding centers that are Common Core aligned
• Language arts manipulatives and corresponding centers that are Common Core aligned
• Wikki Stix to help visualize letter and number formations (and to just have fun every once in a while)
• Letter beads for practicing putting words together and to practice blending sounds

First thing tomorrow morning I can put my order in. Then it's a waiting game. If you recall, I received the bounty from one of these money gifts early this year - the order had been filed last spring. I guess beggars cannot be choosers. Whenever it arrives, I have faith that it will arrive. And then I will celebrate - again!

half time

Today we had our first early release Monday of the school year. In my school district we have one day a month that is set aside for early release so that teachers can participate in professional development. This morning when one of my students walked in she excitedly declared, "Today we have half time! We get to go home after lunch!" This little kinder of mine started playing recreational soccer a couple of weeks ago and has clearly caught on to the lingo. As a former soccer player myself, I love that she referred to today as having half time and that she was able to connect the concept of half to something in her life outside of school.

When discussing that we had an early release/half day, later in the morning, I asked my kinders if they knew what the word half meant. The jumped on the question like the pepperoni pizza that I drew on the board to help them visualize half. One student helped to draw a line down the middle of the pizza. Other students declared that the two parts were halves. And even more impressive, they used our math vocabulary from the first couple of weeks of school and said that the halves were equal. 

Have I mentioned before how bright these little learners are? Knowing that I get to work with them every day just makes me smile. I cannot wait to see where we go as a community this year and how we are able to push one another to grow as students and teachers so that we get the most out of our kindergarten experience.

Happy Monday!

breathe

And, breathe

It is before 7AM on Friday morning, and look at that. My lesson plans are done for next week. My materials are prepped and sorted. It is shaping up to be a good end to the week and I think that I will be able to sit back and breathe this weekend.

Of course, lesson planning isn't all that there is to teaching. In between the breaths that I take and the sitting back and relaxing (which, if you know me, I don't really do all that well) I will continue to work. I have programs to look into for my RtI (Response to Intervention - the time that is set aside for intensive work with struggling learners) time and there are always little odds and ends to take care of to help make the classroom run more smoothly. But, the big picture is that my planning is done. If the other things are not taken care of right away, my classroom will not fall apart. As I said, I can breathe. And that is a fantastic feeling as I wrap up this first month of school.

Happy Friday!

sort it out

My little learners working on classifying and categorizing

The list of things that kindergarteners (rather, all students) need to learn is incredibly long. As a teacher, this means that I need to find innovative ways for the students to make connections to the material that can sometimes be a bit dry. I follow the curriculum laid out by the school district and use the basic materials that they tell me to, but I also try to build upon those basics so that the students aren't spending all of their time listening to lecture and doing worksheets.

This week, our focus in language arts is classifying and categorizing. In layman's terms, we're sorting. However, I need to stress this academic language, which confuses the heck out of their five (and now six) year old brains. I'll get to add to the confusion later this year when we change the academic language to compare and contrast. What it all comes down to though is we are sorting the heck out of things.

Today I broke out my sorting plates (which I purchased for very little at the Jumble Shop while visiting the mister's family in Nebraska last year) and seashells (given to my by my friend Emily). The more advanced students were able to decide how they would sort the shells into groups. My on level group sorted their shells by size. My students that still struggle a bit did some guided sorting by color (I would choose a color and demonstrate how to make a group, then they would follow suit). It was a fantastic hands on activity followed up by a worksheet that is somewhat similar to that which we will do for our weekly test tomorrow. It seemed to go well. Tomorrow we'll see just how well the connection stuck.

life

Sometimes, it happens. Life takes over no matter what your plans are. When I started this blog at the beginning of August, my plan had been to write a little something every day as a means of reflecting upon my teaching experiences and life in general. The highs, the lows, and whatever happens in between. Friday evening I decided that while this was a fantastic idea, sometimes I also just need me time. Or we time.

On Friday, after work, I ran around town trying to complete some errands - some I completed successfully, some not so much. I got home and was able to stock the fridge with hazelnut milk (my newest food addiction) and put quarters away for laundry. I had failed at getting the mister and I registered for a race at the end of September, due to the chamber closing early and then only having registration forms for the bike portion of the weekend of events, no signs of the ones for the half marathon. Life, it happens, and not always as planned.

That evening the mister and I did something unusual for the school year. We sat back, ate some delicious homemade lentil lasagna, and watched a movie. Yes, we relaxed. Knowing that we had a long weekend in front of us we didn't feel pressure to knock out just a little bit of work before hitting the sack. We looked through our Netflix queue and finally watched The King's Speech. It was well worth the time out from our busy lives. During the movie I also finally finished making a blanket for a friend of ours from Costa Rica who is due to have a little girl any day now!

Yesterday morning I went about my normal Saturday morning routine and checked off a beautiful 10 mile run through the high desert. During the last couple of weeks we have had a lot of rain for the desert and I was surprised by the abundance of green. I was also fortunate in that it was an overcast morning so I did not need to battle the heat of the sun, though I did have to deal with some stomach problems. Oh well, life happens, and you keep on keeping on. I finished up my 10 miles in just over 2 hours, which I was quite pleased with (the last mile was accompanied by the howls of coyotes in the distance). This is my longest run on record in well over a year, after battling injury after injury. 

After I left the trails the mister called and we decided to go to Albuquerque for the day. This is once again something unusual for us. I think that I went to Albuquerque "just because" once last Thanksgiving with friends, but the two of us have never done it. Sure, we've been to the city since moving here a little over a year ago, but for things like going to the airport, to run races, or for medical appointments. Yesterday, we shopped. I the past year I have lost a little over ten pounds, and therefore was in desperate need of clothes that fit me well. We also took care of some things on our list that we've been putting off, such as buying new towels and other basic household goods. We topped off the day with a delicious Japanese/Sushi dinner. It was a true treat for us.

And now, life goes back to normal. This morning I worked out and cut tags off of new items and prepared things for laundry. The mister threw together some home fries and a crustless veggie quiche. We are moving past our 36 hours of "freedom" (granted by this long weekend) and settling into work: grading papers, updating student data folders, creating newsletters for the month of September, reading for grad school, doing household chores. 

We may take a break from life on occasion, but it always finds us in the end. Enjoy your long weekend (if you are fortunate enough to have Monday off)!

flow

As I approach week four of the 2013 - 2014 school year, I find myself gradually coming into a flow. The systems that I had in place last year are coming back to me, and with a year of experience behind me, I'm getting back into the teaching groove.

I typically get to school an hour before my students show up. This gives me time to make sure all of my materials are ready to go so that there are not any down moments for the little guys to go crazy. I also just like being prepared, and this time allows me the time for not only material preparation, but mental preparation. I review my lesson plans, check my materials, make any changes to account for any materials missed the day before, or to allow for review of materials that the students did not grasp the first (or second, or third) time through. And I breathe.

This morning I found that I was able to move through these typical steps much faster than I was during the first two and a half weeks. This meant that I spent nearly 45 minutes lesson planning this morning. Now that I am comfortable with the lesson planning template that I came up with, I was able to plug information in and wrap up next week's language arts plan before the day even "started."

As the day progressed, I found that my students are coming into a flow as well. They are no longer asking every five minutes if it is time to go home yet (or now, they ask if it is Smartie Pants Time, when we do our daily review and wrap up). They moved in and out of centers like pros. The lined up quickly and quietly (or at least faster and quieter than they previously did). We're onto something here.

This afternoon I was able to prepare my monthly calendar and reading log for September, along with a notice of weekly learning objectives for the month. Tomorrow morning I will be able to update my kinders' take home folders so that families know what is coming up, and what they should be reviewing with their children on a daily basis.

I'm feeling good about this whole teaching thing. I've loved it from the very beginning, but this week I am beginning to really feel like I'm finding the balance and flow to make my year a little bit smoother, and my time management a little bit easier.

And it only took three weeks. (And a year, but who's counting?)

sunday

Today's pile

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of sitting down and doing some crafting. I could relax, without any worries, and just be. On Monday, the realities of being a teacher and a grad student sank in. Classes started and with them, the pile of work grew exponentially. This Sunday, I am able to go about my normal morning routine, but I know that instead of sitting and relaxing and taking some me time, I will be sitting and reading, or writing, or finishing up the last little touches on my lesson plans for the week.

This semester, the mister and I decided to take three graduate courses. This may sound slightly insane (and perhaps it is), but by doing this we will only need to take one course when next summer rolls around. It will be a month long course as opposed to one that consumes the whole summer. While we may be kicking ourselves for it now, I think that we will sit back with a sigh of relief next summer when we are able to head east and enjoy some time with friends and family that we have not seen in far too long.

On today's plate I have reading for a class appropriately called The Teaching of Reading, some more reading for Introduction to Special Education, and I will probably sit down and pound out a couple of assignments for our "bonus" class, Technology in Education. This "bonus" class is one that everyone has told us is tedious and somewhat annoying, but from what I have seen so far, this also means that it is easy. I have completed some of the assignments already, such as "Write a 5 page paper about yourself," and "Write a 5 page paper about your family." Others include, "Use Paint to create four pictures that tell a story and insert them into PowerPoint." I think I've got this.

On a positive note, it is just after 9:00 and I have worked out, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, vacuumed, and started laundry. The mister is plugging away in the kitchen so that we have some tasty treats to eat on the run (i.e. during a 15 - 20 minute break during classes on Monday and Wednesday nights), and so our Sundays go. Welcome back to reality. 

the problem with planning

My planning paradise (is there a way to make a font sarcastic?)

Planning. It can take over a teacher's life sometimes. Sometimes it gets pushed to the back burner until the last minute. I like to plan in advance and allow myself free time over the weekends (or time to devote to grad school work), but this new year and these new mandates for materials to be used for instruction are killing me. I am not excited to lesson plan, because I do not have a lot of control over what I am planning, and therefore my creativity is kind of pushed to the side. Creativity makes teaching exciting. Being told to follow a teaching manual is not.

This week I have other problems interfering with lesson planning. Those problems are called graduate classes. Grad school started up this week and I have been left with afternoons cut too short, hours taken away from my evenings, and a whole pile of work added onto the already huge pile of work. Now it's Thursday afternoon and all that I have in front of me is an empty weekly planner (and a blog that is allowing me to be creative and a procrastinator). 

Granted, I haven't been procrastinating as much as it may appear on the surface, I have been putting some thought into my plans. Last weekend I was trying to figure out a new template, but stuck with the one I had initially designed. This week, I'm taking my template and trying to pare down what I need to put into it. Last week I plugged in as much of the content from my teacher's manuals as I could, this week I'm looking at what I was actually able to get to in the time that my school has allotted for me to teach different materials. This whole process is becoming one huge (and sometimes overwhelming) puzzle. But, I like puzzles, so I keep on plugging away.

This week's brainstorming has resulted in composing a lot of charts to break down my language arts time and to try and figure out how to really incorporate the daily five into my teaching. My planning is leading me toward doing a daily three so that I have enough time to cover the required content that I will be testing on each week, but so that students also have the time to explore literacy on their own and develop their skills at a pace that is appropriate for them. I have also been looking at all of the less important elements from my teacher's manual (that I plugged into last week's lesson plan, but did not use) and eliminating them from my actual plan, but having enough knowledge of them to fill in any gaps in the day should that ever happen (not likely unless a special has been cancelled). Math has gone pretty well, so I am not to concerned about making changes in that area.

The puzzle pieces are coming together in my mind, but it's time to get those ideas plugged into my template. Happy planning (and happy first week to some) to all of my teacher family and friends. We'll find a way to cram all of this information into our students' heads (hopefully)!